Link is a Link is a Link. What are they?

There are often frequently asked questions concerning "links" and "backlinks". Try doing a search for links or backlinks in Google and the pages that appear and articles that appear are enormous. Read the comments on most of these pages and find many more questions than what were answered in the articles! In short people are always looking for more information regarding links. and I am going to assume that is why you yourself are reading this article. Hoping to learn or stumble upon something new. I hope that this article indeed proves useful to you. But back to links and the many questions surrounding them. Most often questions range and vary from:

Why are links important?

Are there different types of links?

Do all links have equal value to the search engines?

Are there any links that a website owner should avoid?

Are links from blogs helpful?

How about links from blog comment sections?

Which type of site links are best?

All of these and many other questions often pop up and there are many good articles on the internet that answer each and every question here. Some better than others. This article "Links:Frequently Asked Questions" by Wayne Hurlbert at SEO Chat is well written and tries to answer many of these questions, and very well.